St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-24
Wreck Of a Minnesota &
Northwestern Passenger
Train in Wisconsin.
Scores Of Travellers Injured,
but None Suffer I'M
mediate Death.
A st. Paul Citizen Tell a Vivid
Story Of the Lament
able Affair.
A Broken Rail Completely
Uses Up a Train on the
Wisconsin Central.
Premier Norquay Compelled
to Abandon His Place as
Boss of Manitoba.
An Outline Of Guenther's
anti Monopoly Bill
Northwestern Notes.

CHICAGO. Dec. 23.-Probably the
worst shaking-up ever given a train
load of passengers without killing a
single person outright occurred to the
$50 people coming to Chicago in the
regular seven coaches on the Minnesota
q Northwestern road this morning.
Fully forty passengers were injured
five of them seriously and two perhaps
fatally. Though not single one OF the
seven coaches but had both ends
smashed in, and all were pitched off the
track, some being hurled over on their
sides, there was no cOn1agratiOn. This
is made the more strange by the fact
that all the coaches were fitted up with
the old-faShioned stoves in the corner.
Another remarkable feature is that the
affair happened just after the train had
passed long bridge ten feet high. The
accident occurring a moment sooner
would have
MADE A CATASTROPHE
of fearful fatality. The details are best
given in the words of one of the passen-
gers, J. II. Davidson, well known resi-
dent of st. Paul, who arrived here this
evening from the wreck: at was a
merry crowd on board" said he, $50
many of them were eXcurSiOnlSts. There
were several cars-firSt the baggage,
then the firSt-claSS passenger, the
secOnd-class passenger, the buffet, and
three SleeperS including one Mann
boudoir. In the $50 persons was holi-
day excursion party of fifty, mainly
from Winnipeg. The other passengers
oil Tlal-nfa | wa
Just telling StOTy-it was never
finished-when there came a sudden
fearful Jolt. and then a wild swaying and
pIunging forward of the car. Something
Struck me across the thighs or | was
thrown against it, daZing me for a mo-
ment. People being tumbled in every
direction, shrieking and grOaning,
while the horrible jOlting seemed I'M
ending, and the crunching and ere aling
of the car timbers were telling that
every moment might be our last. Be
fore the car came to stop the paSsen-
gers We're scrambling heller SHELTER
over each other to get out. When L
reached the air | was bruised and sore
all over and scarcely able to stand, Ow-
ing to the pain across nv thighs, but l
noticed that nothing of the train was on
the track but the engine. We had been
going about twenty-five miles an hour,
and the cars had plunged along ties or
gone off to either side 100 to 200 feet.
One coach
LEFT ITS TRUCKS
on the tracks and slid on its bottom way
out into a corntleld, blowing up the
dirt to depth of two or three feet.
Dirt was over everybody. ladies and all.
1t would have been ludicrOus, if it had
not been pitiful, to see the blOod-stainS
through the mire and hear the means of
those who were hurt. Broken glass had
done the most painful work. Nearly
everybody could get around them
selves, though cut and bruised and be-
Smirched. The ladies were huddled
into the bOudOir car and made as com
Portable as possible while waiting for
surgeons from Freeport. Three gentle
men were found to be laid up with very
severe hurts, and two ladies had been
carried into farm house in apparently
a diving condition. One Miss Hume. of
Dubuque. Her injuries were in the hip
and back. We were all too glad to have
escaped to care much about how the ac-
cident occurred. 1t was aScertained,
however, that it was due to spreading
of the rails. The accident occurred
near German Valley. Wis. The rail
road cOmpany's loss will be very heavy.
The name of the other lady. whose in
juries may result fatally, is Mrs. John
McGuffin, of Verden, Oak. She, it is
understood, was
LEFT AT THE FARM HOUSE
near the accident. Miss Hume was
brought to this city and carried to a
friends house. The three gentlemen
badly hurt are d. c. Abraham, of Min
neapoliS; A. S. Scringern, or Grin
igen, of st. Paul, and A. Kemp, of
Devils Lake. They and all the other
passengers, except the one lady.
were brought to Chicago and housed
with friends or at the Grand Pacific.
Some of the passengers made their way
after the accident to Melton station and
endeavored to send messages to rela-
tiVeS. but the operator fatty refused the
kilograms. Notwithstanding the acct
dent occurred before 10 4. m. it was five
hours afterwards before medical assist
ance arrived, the doctors car being at
tached to the regular day express.
Among the injured at the Grand Pa
cific tonight are the following, the ma
ture of whose injuries make the wreck
seem to have been worse even than
stated by Mr.. Davidson:
EDDIE KELLEY, aged ten, Minton: Oak,
skull fractured.
Mrs. CONWAY, Winnipeg, Man, scalp
wound, elbow and wrist bruised.
Mrs. MCINTYRE, Winnipeg, head cut hip
and back bruised.
LEARNED N ST. PAUL.
Officials of the Minnesota d North
western III st. Paul said last night that
their reports were TO the effect that the
accident resulted from broken axle
One lady was injured badly, and posi-
bly, ten passengers had insignificant
bruises. The track would be cleared
by midnight. The passengers of the
wrecked train were taken to their des-
tinations on a special tram sent to the
scene of the wreck. Reports were that
there would be no loss OF life.